Mike,Im sorry this is bothering you like this. You bring up a good point. We are here to heal...Scot also brings up a good point on betrayal of trust. What the board as done is betray us. How many emails have you sent to them asking whats going on? How many replys have you gotten back? How can we use this as a place to heal if we cant trust the ones who are in charge of keeping us safe? James

Here is the history I was referring to. He is the first survivor to be President of MS.

Fred Tolson is a survivor and in 1990 founded Men Assisting, Leading & Educating (MALE), a nonprofit organization dedicated to healing male survivors of sexual abuse. MALE published the newsletter, Men's Issues Forum and provided the first national 800 support number for male survivors. MALE was the first survivor organization to include victims and offenders in its mission. MALE held it's first survivor conference in Denver, CO in 1995 and merged with NOMSV (now MaleSurvivor) at the Sixth World Interdisciplinary Conference in Columbus, OH.

"I believe one of our most important missions in preventing the sexual abuse of males is by working to prevent all forms of sexual victimization. We do this through public education, advocating treatment for victims and perpetrators, and offering our voices and experience to those developing prevention programs."

Fred has presented at numerous national conferences and workshops about the sexual abuse of males and the treatment of sexual offenders. He also provides specialized clinical services to sexual offenders. Fred was the editor of Sexual Crimes and Research and Victim Resources and Support for the Netscape/Mozilla Open Directory Project and is the author of "Be Silent No Longer", a booklet for adolescent male survivors.

He is the Director of the Community Supervision Program (CSP) for Sexual Offense Resource Services in Denver, CO. The CSP provides community based supervision and computer forensics for parole/probation departments and private agencies. Fred developed the CMCS software program for the clinical management and community supervision of offenders.

He served on the advisory board of Stop Prison Rape, a national organization dealing with rape in confinement and the board of directors of the Colorado Coalition Against Sexual Assault. He is the Webmaster for MaleSurvivor: NOMSV and served on the MaleSurvivor Board of Directors from 1998-2001. In 2003 Fred was re-elected to the MaleSurvivor Board of Directors.

How long do we wait Mike? The end of the day? The end of the month? The year? The next retreat? How long should we wait before we demand answers? How many "young" people have been in the chat room and not kept safe by the mod's of the chat.Thad and Steve work very hard at keeping it a safe place for us to chat. I know your not saying they dont Mike and Im by means trying to say you are. But how long should we wait.James

Mike & James, the issue of whether very young menare protected in chat or even on the Discussion Board is a whole different issue. But it is a very big issue and one that needs to be addressed honestly (but I doubt very much it will be), and in fact has been hidden under the table for as long as I've been here. But even if this was the reason for the closing of chat, it doesn't excuse the process that was taken. Peace, Andrew

this is confusing - we just had a big fundraising drive - we were told it was succesful and now our membership fees and donations are being misappropritated in a way not previously disclosed -the attractiveness of this site was the chat room which was a health bringing element to the me - crucially -this is not a useful or productive step -this seems - smacks of misrepresentation -

it is very hurtful - and i would like more information - as of now - this move seems abusive - please explain - we need information -

hurt mgb

_________________________
"...do not look outside yourself for the leader."-wisdom of the hopi elders

In defense of Richard Gartner, he has responded prior to your post. And he has apologized for there not having been an explanation about closing the chat room. And agrees that we deserve one. Fred Tolson is preparing a statement about it and should have it posted within a day or two. He further requests that we do not take the lack of quick response as a betrayal of trust.

So everybody, please calm down. It is unfortunate that the Board had to come to the decision to close the chatroom, but before we all act out of anger and without the facts, let's wait until the offical announcement is made.

It doesn't take a day or two to issue an official response. Secondly, Richard is quite capable of clueing us in as to what the hell is happening. Very cavalier of him to imply that a day or two of waiting is reasonable. ... Andrew

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